The problem is that we all need to be showing that we’re valuable. Yes, programmers can do it by continuing to post to Github. Sure designers can post new work to Dribbble. Even with these options, you’re limited in showing the value you can provide to your next thing.

So, how does one show that they can provide value? How do you show that you can communicate well to others?

Your site is a place you control. You can have comments or not. You can approve who comments and what they say. You can share photos, or videos, or just write.

Yes there is more friction between you and your blog than there is with many social networks, but it forces a bit more thought than just firing off a short sentence from your phone. More thought can show more value.

What about Other Options

Yes there are other options for “social” sites. At one point App.net looked promising, but no longer.

We now have Mastodon and micro.blog. Mastodon is more like Twitter, but instead of one place owning everything, you have a group of servers that all can talk to each other. You’re a primary resident of a single server but can follow and interact with or block users from other servers.

Micro.blog is different again in that you own the content. You can either have them host the blog for you, or you can send your RSS feed to get republished on Micro.blog.

The big thing is owning your content

The biggest thing to look at when you’re sharing your thoughts is owning the content. Yes you’ll see my writing on Medium, but it’s only ever republished work from my site. I don’t publish anything original at Medium because I don’t want them to have exclusive ownership of my content.

When you own the content, you can see what’s working and what’s not. You can decide what you publish and what guidelines it follows. You can think deeper about something, or just post quick takes.

It’s all up to you, but write. Clear communication of ideas is a skill that is needed in any field. Writing shows that you have this skill.

Writing well is a far more valuable skill than the ability to craft a pithy tweet.